itq: here to help

… is the much-hoped-for answer to at least one liveblogger’s most heartfelt pleas to the universe — and she doesn’t care how cranky it seems to have made Joy Smith to have been summoned back to the Hill to preside over an emergency meeting on whether to look into the “latest developments” on the H1N1 virus, as well as the government’s current preparedness for a possible pandemic this fall. (Cue the usual suspects rolling their eyes and telling all and sundry not to get all panicky.)

I know, I know — you’re all going to scold ITQ for being so darned cynical, but it’s hard to see how this leaders’ panel/working group/subcommittee on employment insurance is going to be able to cobble together anything approaching a consensus – let alone a common policy – on reforming the current system.

I was actually going to write about this last year, which was when I first became aware of what is, I suspect, a largely unknown loophole in the Federal Accountability Act, but what with one thing and another – governments collapsing, coalitions forming, parliaments dissolving, Liberal leadership races ending – I didn’t get around to it at the time, and pretty much forgot about it until this morning, when (thanks to National NewsWatch), I came across this article over at straight.com, which reports that CanWest supremo Leonard Asper was apparently in close communication with various key cabinet ministers and regulatory officials last fall:

But first, a few words from – yes, again – Peter Van Loan: 

Okay, so it’s not quite the ITQ proposal which would have bumped opposition-chaired committees up to thirteen members, but dropping the total by one  has exactly the same result, as far as preventing the dreaded de facto majority. (Best of all, this means that committees will soon be back in business, to which we can only give a heartfelt ‘Hurray!’):

If anyone wants to compare the resolutions to be debated at next week’s convention to the Policy Declaration that came out of the party’s last convention in 2005, a PDF of the final version  is available on the party website here, although readers are advised that it may be wise to save a copy to their local hard drive — the html version of the text that used to be here has vanished down the memory hole, and it’s possible that the PDF was supposed to have been removed as well. It appears to be an orphan file at the moment – there are no internal links to the PDF or the now-missing text, and it doesn’t show up in the list of “key documents”. 

Otherwise, it looks – well, like you’re tacitly admitting to pretty much exactly the kind of partisan anticking that you’re attempting to deny:

A quick note for anyone out there who may be having trouble reading ITQ (or, come to think of it, any of the macleans.ca blogs) on their BlackBerry (or an y inferior other hand-held device): You might want to update your bookmark(s) by hand. For some reason, the automagical redirect thingy doesn’t play nicely with mobile browsers, which means that if you try to get here through the old URL – the one that starts off with forums.macleans.ca, followed by a hideously complex and counterintuitive string of random characters and numbers – it won’t work.

Instead, go directly to:

http://blog.macleans.ca/category/blogs/national/inside-the-queensway/

http://www.insidethequeensway.com

Yes, I realize the inherent contradiction of posting directions on how to access this blog on the very same blog that the people who could use said directions are unable to access, but what can you do?

Also: Look! Comments!

Never let it be said that this is not a blog of its word.

You might want to think twice about having Peter Van Loan repeat, with Tourettes-like fervour, that the Conservatives are the only political party in Canadian history to have their headquarters raided by the RCMP. I don’t think it sends quite the right message.